Guns 'n Ice Cream

It's all in the timing....

Yesterday, the three of us (Hubby, Daughter and myself) spent a delightful late morning/early afternoon at the beach. The skies were blue; the water was cool; and there was a fantastic Gulf breeze blowing in that provided just enough nature-induced air conditioning to make the day nothing less than perfect.

After a delectable lunch at my favorite beach watering hole, the Yucatan, we piled our sand-and-sweat-soaked bodies into the car and headed up the road for ice cream.



Love Boat Ice Cream has been in business in Ft. Myers since 1970 - only shutting down once in it's almost-50-year history - and that's when Hurricane Charley in 2004 did a number on it.

Love Boat offers up some of the BEST home-made ice cream to be found, with over 30-some flavors, including Key Lime, Raspberry Cheesecake, Rum Raisin, Birthday Cake, and Cherry Vanilla.

Yesterday, I got a an arguably "small" scoop of chocolate raspberry, and as the sweet and creamy goodness tickled my taste buds, I commented to Hubby, "This ice cream is to DIE for!"

This was at 4:30 in the afternoon.

At 10:15 pm last night, two young men, armed with guns, came into the little shop and robbed the place. Luckily, although they did strike one of the employees with the gun, no one else was hurt.


Surveillance photo of one of the suspects

As of right now, they have yet to catch the bad guys.

Upon reading about the robbery this morning, two thoughts went quickly through my mind:

1. Thank goodness no one really did die for ice cream...

2. Thank goodness we weren't there at the time. I can't imagine, as a parent, what would go through your mind if you realized your child was in this situation - and what would/could you do to protect them....awful, huh?

When I was 18 years old, I worked at a fast-food restaurant...and one evening, an armed gunman came in and held us up. He pulled the telephone out of the wall in the office, where he had the four of us on the floor with our hands over our heads, and hit me in the head with it. After forcing the manager to open the safe, the bad guy left - and was never caught, that I know of.

Incredibly, I wasn't all that scared. While facing potential death, an incredible peace had come over me, and I remember being more worried about how my parents would react to my possible demise, than anything else. It wasn't until AFTER the bad guy escaped that the danger of the situation hit me fully - and terrorized my dreams for many months to follow.

Life can change in an instant...hug your loved ones closer today...

Peace.

Edited to add: This afternoon, police did arrest two suspects; an 18-year old and a 24-year old. Am I surprised it was kids? Nope. Seriously - how much money could an ice-cream shop be carrying??!! Dopes.